Can This be Right?
August 31, 2011
During a recent coaching session, my client, gave me a copy of her most recent performance review saying, “I need help fixing this.”
While she was rated exceptional in several areas, her supervisor said that her employees found her “curt, and abrasive” and they felt unappreciated. She runs a group of about 20 in a facility with about 100 employees. They have a matrix organizational chart so each person may have responsibilities to several managers.
She said that she had asked her supervisor for specific examples he could not provide any.
To say she was perplexed was an understatement, especially since this was the first time in 4 years, she had gotten this kind of feedback.
At first, we discussed how managers are often not the best judges of their own performance, and then I asked if she could think of any instances that might have led to the criticism. She could only cite one fellow manager who she admitted she had “issues” with, but said she had never heard any of her group even mumble anything about her management style. (NB: She holds weekly status meetings with the whole group and meets regularly with direct reports.)
She admitted she was very confident and could be blunt but she didn’t sense any problems.
We went through her daily and weekly routines. I tried to help her analyze her interpersonal contacts, and offered some suggestions about how she might make some changes, but I had to admit, I was a bit perplexed.
After spending a number of hours with her, and reviewing how her department worked and her interactions, I couldn’t figure out what her boss was getting at either. She is direct, but after 4 years, with minimal turnover, employees usually come to understand a manager’s communication style and adapt to it.
We even spent some time exploring whether she was miscast as a mid-level manager and was more suited for another role outside the company.
As we talked, over several sessions, I could not find any patterns in her presentation that was anything but professional, knowledgeable, confident and caring. She didn’t strike me as the kind of pathological, egotistical boss that fills the pages of most management textbooks.
She wasn’t familiar with many of the terms of Emotional Intelligence, but she seemed to have a good sense of the tools and was already using some.
In the end, I tried to assure her that she was on the right track and while she could make some changes in listening and trying to be attuned to the needs of her staff, maybe the best option was to just assume her boss was basing his critique on bad information, or on a single example. Possibly, he was just wrong or more euphemistically, ‘ill-informed.’
Three weeks later, she learned he was being eased out of his position, so maybe, there was something else going on.
The lesson: I would never ignore what’s on your performance review, but if it doesn’t ring true, you may need to question some of the underlying assumptions and decide for yourself if changes are warranted.
Local, World Politics
August 24, 2011
You never know when international news will make its way into your life.
I just got back from my local bank. It’s the only branch, in what qualifies as ‘downtown,’ in my little community of 5,000.
I had a bunch of checks to deposit and since there was no one else in the building, I listed them on the deposit slip and asked the teller to do the addition. While he was adding, I noticed his name looked Middle Eastern, and when he counted the checks in French I asked if he came from Northern Africa.
I guessed Morocco, but to my surprise he said, “Libya,” then added ,”It’s a good day to be Libyan.”
I couldn’t help but ask how felt about what was going on and it was clear that he was both proud of his native country and a bit worried. “I am very happy, not just for me, but for my father. He never thought he’d see the day…” His father is here with him but he admitted they were already thinking about when they could go back, at least to visit.
I asked what he thought would happen next and he offered,”It depends who takes control. If it’s a Muslim country – meaning the majority is of the Muslim faith, then it will not be a problem. But if the Islamists get a foothold and take over, it will be as if, a certain dictator never left.”
I asked about tribal conflict, which the Western press has been harping on, and he said, ‘The tribes are not a problem, It’s not like Iraq. The tribes are families, but they are all Libyan.” I wished him well and he offered his hand and a heartfelt,”thank you.”
You may think that international politics is far away, but to paraphrase Tip O’Neill “it’s all local.”
Coaching on TV
August 22, 2011
USA network’s ‘Necessary Roughness’ a new TV show about a psychologist who treats athletes has a new story line featuring a personal coach.
The plot would take too long to explain but what I found most interesting was the characterization of the coach. So far it’s decidedly negative. Of course, by the end of the next few episodes that could change, but for now fans of the show probably won’t be calling to hire a personal coach.
There are probably other shows with a more positive spin on my profession but I guess I’ll have to do a search to find them.
You could argue that any publicity is good publicity, but I’m not sure that’s much of a consolation in this case. Stay tuned.
Outsourcing Realities
August 19, 2011
I’ve decided to keep an ‘outsourcing scorecard’ just to keep track of what direction the jobs are moving in the new world economy. I started about three weeks ago and so far the tally is 2-1 in favor of ‘offshore.’
The real surprise, I guess, is that there is any movement at all back to the United States.
I have several different jobs so I come in contact with outsourcing in several areas. I am a coach who does a fair amount of job counseling, plus I do business consulting for small firms, and I also work in health care dealing with insurers and doctors in the California Workers Compensation system.
The first score on my outsourcing scorecard, came two weeks ago when I got a call from a nurse case manager who was overseeing the care of a patient in the Bay Area. (Overseeing is the insurance company translation for making sure they are not spending too much of the insurer’s money)
That aside, she asked about the patient’s status but when the phone line kept breaking up, I finally asked where she was calling from. She said, rather matter-of-factly, The Philippines. I have no problem with the Philippines, or their residents, but the thought of a nurse checking on a patient’s condition and trying to assess care from 7,764 miles away, bothered me, so I told her to have someone in the United States call, I would be happy to discuss the case.
Last week, I called United Airlines at about 11:00 p.m. to check on a reservation I had made for my 91-year-old dad. I went through the normal phone tree and finally reached an operator and got the answer to my question. I was about to hang up when I realized that for the first time in over 25 years of dealing with United, I was not talking to someone in India.
I asked the agent and I could almost hear the smile in her voice as she pointed out, “Well, United and Continental are now merged and the new CEO is from Continental, and he does not believe in outsourcing.”
I have been complaining about the call center in India for, well, forever, and I told her I was delighted to be speaking to someone in Chicago. Go Cubbies.
Score one for U.S.A.
Finally, this week, I was called from a local doctor’s office in the Bay Area about a patient they were referring to my wife, who is a psychologist specializing in pain management. They wanted to know if we had all the pages they faxed. I had to check so I got her call-back number which ended in a 5-digit extension, which I thought was a bit odd for a relatively small practice.
You guessed it, when I called back I was talking some an ’employee’ in the Phillipines working for a company that provides back-office services to doctors.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone is trying to cut expenses in the medical field, but I can’t help but wonder, how long it will be until a medical office is just one doctor and one receptionist and everone else is thousands of miles away.
Of course, the next step is that everyone is thousands of miles away and the doctor is an avatar in front of a computer.
BFF
August 4, 2011
Public Speaking 101
August 3, 2011
I recently attended a professional meeting to hear an expert on a topic I find interesting.
The actual topic is irrelevant, as is the speaker’s name.
When I arrived the registration table there were a number of brochures from the speaker, none of which seemed to focus on the advertised topic. I mentioned this to another attendee and she agreed, noting she was a bit surprised, but thought maybe the marketing materials were intended for a wider audience.
Fair point, I thought, since it was s pretty small group and she probably wouldn’t have created something just for this event.
I happened to meet the speaker before the event started and mentioned my concern and she explained what she had been told to address, which was, again, different from the original advertised topic.
When the lecture started she apparently switched gears again, asking the audience, what they wanted to hear. A noble idea, but what followed was a rambling, disjointed series of answers to audience questions. Some authoritative and others, she admitted, were not her area of expertise.
I’m not sure how the evening evolved into it’s final form, but I felt was a waste of two hours of my time. Maybe it was my fault, for expecting too much, but maybe, she should have just lectured on a topic that matched her expertise.
That’s all I really expected and would be a minimal goal for any presentation. My advice, next time you are asked to speak, just talk about what you know, in an entertaining and engaging style, and don’t worry about the preconceptions of the audience.
An Era Ends Here
August 2, 2011
After 62 years, a daily newspaper will no longer be delivered to my house. This is a big deal for me and for the newspaper industry.
As someone who grew up with the Haverhill Gazette and The Boston Globe and then spent 30 years in the business, giving in to digital dominance was like saying good-bye to an old friend.
My dad, who will be 91 in a few weeks, beat me to the punch. When his poor eyesight forced him to give up reading a few years ago the newspaper was a casualty as well. For him the iPad was a savior and he now reads four papers a day because he can make the print as large as he wants.
For the newspaper industry, losing a reader like me is a sure sign that they have lost a major battle. If someone from a generation like mine gives up, I guess it’s a foregone conclusion that the newspaper printing business is pretty much over.
I guess I’m the last to admit it.
My wife asked what it will mean. I’m hopeful that reporting and publishing news online will remain strong. In an age of Twitter, Facebook and Google+, legitimate news sites where editors actually make judgements about what is news, are needed. These sites will, hopefully, continue to set the agenda that reasoned consumers need.
Our political climate, including the soon-to-be concluded debt ceiling debate, is largely a product of the unedited, extremist debate that takes over when no-one is in charge.
I could go on about the reason this has happened. The newspaper publishers have no-one to blame but themselves. Their unwillingness to change on a wide range of issues has led to their own demise.
Thankfully, news is still alive. Weekly and small daily publications seem to be thriving. The kind of information that has always been important – the stuff that makes the front of the refrigerator – is still in demand.
I will continue to consume news online, so I guess the final chapter is a long way off, but my small step is still painful.